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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Bixiou. "You know about engravings and such things, my dear fellow,
but you are totally ignorant of the laws of etiquette. Well, no man
can be a universal genius! Silk is positively not admissible in deep
mourning. Don't you see I am wearing woollen? Monsieur Rabourdin,
Monsieur Baudoyer, and the minister are all in woollen; so is the
faubourg Saint-Germain. There's no one here but Minard who doesn't
wear woollen; he's afraid of being taken for a sheep. That's the
reason why he didn't put on mourning for Louis XVIII."
[During this conversation Baudoyer is sitting by the fire in Godard's
room, and the two are conversing in a low voice.]
Baudoyer. "Yes, the worthy man is dying. The two ministers are both
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